"…"
No one understood better than Kuroha what the sight before him meant for an Uma Musume.
This was the brutal reality that awaited when an Uma Musume's "peak period" came to an end.
The blessings of the Three Goddesses… had run out.
But why?
Why had Super Creek, who should have been able to hold on for at least three more months, reached the end of her prime so far ahead of schedule?
A powerful emotional shock?
Overstraining her body in order to compete with someone?
Or had she been forced through some utterly unreasonable racing schedule?
…
His thoughts spun quickly.
In just a single instant, Kuroha could think of several different scenarios that would lead to this situation.
Going back over Super Creek's experiences over the past year, a faint answer formed in his mind.
Shock? Competition?
So this all comes back to… Inari?
"If that's really the case, then I might actually share part of the responsibility for what's happened to Creek…"
He let out a quiet sigh in his heart.
But nothing odd showed on his face. Only the usual smile at his lips smoothed slightly, becoming calmer and more reliable.
"Long time no see, Creek."
Kuroha pulled out the chair opposite his desk and spoke gently.
"Don't just stand there. Sit down first."
"Ah… yes."
Super Creek blinked in surprise, but obediently chose a chair and sat.
She folded her hands on her knees and lowered her head a little, as if searching for the right words.
Kuroha didn't rush her. He simply put a kettle on to boil, getting ready to make tea.
"Why are you alone? Where's Fumino?"
At his question, Creek's head dipped a little further.
"After morning training, I… came by myself. Trainer went home."
"Didn't want her to worry?" Kuroha asked quietly.
As soon as those words left his mouth, the chestnut-haired girl suddenly lifted her head. In her confused eyes, a flicker of hope appeared.
"You… can see it?"
Kuroha nodded.
"In Central, I'm probably the only one who can."
"…I see."
At that, her shoulders seemed to loosen just a fraction.
"You haven't been racing at all lately. Has this been going on for a while?"
"Recently…"
Her voice came out hoarse.
"I… I don't really know what's wrong. Lately, my body just feels… off."
"Mm. Tell me. I'm listening."
His tone stayed even and steady.
Encouraged, Super Creek took a deep breath and began to explain what had been happening to her.
"I guess… it started not long after New Year's."
"At first, I just felt like I was getting tired a bit more easily than before in training. I thought it was because I'd relaxed too much over the holiday and hadn't adjusted my condition yet, so I didn't take it seriously."
"But…"
Her voice started to tremble.
"But things just kept getting worse."
"By last month, the training menus that used to be nothing to me had me dripping in sweat. After a run, I'd feel like my head wasn't clear. All hazy, like… like I couldn't think about anything properly…"
Kuroha listened in silence.
He knew these signs well.
This was what happened when an Uma Musume's peak period ended and her physical abilities began to decline, no longer able to support high-intensity training.
Even worse, in Creek's case, the clearest warning was somewhere else entirely.
Her greatest strength, the thing her elaborate mind-games and in-race tactics relied on more than anything else… that brain which had always stayed calm and keen, no matter what…
Was starting to cloud over.
"And during all this… Fumino didn't notice anything in training?" he asked.
At the mention of her trainer, Creek's eyes dimmed.
"She kind of did… and kind of didn't…"
A bitter smile tugged at her lips.
"I'm still finishing all the training menus like before. Trainer says I'm doing great, that my condition is holding steady."
"But I think she sensed something anyway. She just hasn't let me enter any races."
"So I didn't want to make her worry… She's already done so much for my dream. I can't… I can't keep burdening her because of me."
The more she said, the lower her head drooped, and a faint tremor crept into her voice.
"But this morning…"
Creek raised her head again to look at Kuroha. Her clear blue eyes were now completely clouded with confusion.
"This morning, when I was doing solo training… I couldn't use my Domain."
"No matter how hard I focused, no matter how I tried to call it out… nothing happened. That power… it felt like… like it had just vanished."
That was the last straw that broke her back.
A Domain.
The power that arose when an Uma Musume's physical technique was honed to the utmost and she crystallized her goal… a force with the potential to shape an era.
Its very existence carried all the persistence and dreams that Uma Musume held, from now into the future.
Oguri Cap's Domain, for example, had changed dramatically just from a shift in her feelings in that year-end Arima Kinen.
But change and disappearance were fundamentally different things.
A Domain changing simply meant that an Uma Musume's goal, her dreams and persistence, had shifted.
A Domain disappearing, however… could mean that Uma Musume's dream itself had started its final countdown.
"I don't know what's happening to me…"
"Trainer can't help me, and I'm too scared to tell her."
The usual calm and gentleness were gone from Creek's face.
All that remained were thick, clinging layers of helplessness and confusion.
"…I see."
Watching the girl in front of him, already lost and floundering, Kuroha let out a quiet sigh.
This Super Creek was not the same as the one from the original worldline.
In that timeline, when her peak period quietly came to an end, that Super Creek had felt loss and regret as well, but she accepted the end of that fate with a kind of peace.
As one of the "Eternal Big Three," she had already given everything she had on the track, running the kind of races worthy of her name.
Her dream had its regrets, but it was not left completely unfulfilled.
But the girl sitting in front of him now was different.
Because of Inari and the rise of the other Chasing Light girls, much of the glory she should have claimed for herself had been stripped away.
Her confusion and despair did not come only from the sudden decline of her body or the loss of her power.
They came just as much from that fierce unwillingness to let go, from knowing there were higher stages and farther goals she hadn't yet reached.
This Super Creek did not have the same solid honors and monuments to rest her heart on as her counterpart in the original timeline.
"So then… you hid this from Fumino and came to me because…?"
Even though he already knew the answer, Kuroha still asked softly.
"Trainer Kuroha…"
Super Creek rose to her feet and bowed deeply to him, her voice shaded with pleading.
"I thought and thought… and you're the only one I could ask for help."
"Please… please help me."
"At the very least… I want to hold out until I've run the Tenno Sho (Spring)."
The office fell silent.
All that remained was the sound of the girl's strained breathing.
Kuroha looked at her, at those eyes overflowing with fear and confusion, and at the shattered, rainbow light of her being, steadily being eaten away by blackness.
"…I understand."
He spoke at last, his voice not loud, but rock steady.
No detours, no pointless follow-up questions.
Kuroha knew perfectly well how hard it had been for someone as gentle and considerate as Creek to reach this decision.
At his words, her bowed shoulders trembled.
"However, there's no need to hide this from Fumino. She's still your trainer. We'll go see her together in a bit and lay everything out."
"…Okay."
Creek's reply came out small and weak. Her horse ears drooped listlessly, without even the strength to twitch.
(End of Chapter)
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